Missing the Point of the Gift
In the attic of an English manor, a rare find was recently made. In 1900, Queen Victoria commissioned chocolates to be placed in special tins and sent to troops fighting in the Second Boer War. She insisted that the treats be from their home country, and 100,000 were made and sent.
Over the years, many of the tins have been kept (or found), but the find that was made recently was very rare. Why? The chocolate bar was still inside the tin! After 121 years, the candy was still intact and had never been eaten. (One expert said that you wouldn’t exactly want it for your “Easter candy,” but the bar was still intact.) [Source]
There is no way to know, over a century after the fact, why that soldier in 1900 did not eat the treat sent by his nation to lift his morale. Maybe he was allergic to chocolate? Maybe he didn’t particularly like it? Maybe he was more of an ice cream guy? We can’t know.
But it is also possible that this soldier put this gift away as a memento and did not want to eat it, but to keep it as a memory of a good gesture. Again, we don’t (and can’t) know, but I can picture that, can’t you?
If that was the case, then the soldier missed the point of the gift all the way around. Certainly, we can imagine some soldiers eating their chocolate more slowly and taking their time enjoying the treat. We can picture others saving the candy for a break from battle, or until their birthday, or some other special occasion. Those types of decisions make sense.
But to just never eat it? That’s missing the point of the gift! It is meant to be enjoyed; not kept like a museum piece. After all, it is food.
Too often, we treat the gift of Scripture that God has given to us in just the same way. We own a copy. We put it somewhere–maybe even somewhere prominent. We look at it. But we don’t enjoy it! We don’t consume it into our lives and minds and make sure we are getting to know the Author better by consuming it constantly.
Instead, we should be hungry for all it has to give to us. After all, we are away from our true homeland and have been given this gift to bolster us on the battlefield. Should we not make sure we use this gift as it is intended?
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AUTHOR: Adam Faughn
